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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24364021">Respectable Business of the Sweet Tender Meat Vendor</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/TheGrimmScribe'>TheGrimmScribe (orphan_account)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Once Upon a Time (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Once Upon a Time Fusion, Cannibalism, Crossovers &amp; Fandom Fusions, Dark Comedy, Drama &amp; Romance, Family Drama, Food, Multi, Once Upon a Time (TV) References, Sweeney Todd References</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:27:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>996</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24364021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/TheGrimmScribe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Prequel to <i><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22101130">Mad Tea Party</a></i>.</p><p>In the Victorian age of London, a dark tale proves that dark times call for darkly desperate measures, even if means making profits in order to ensure that bloody business is busily booming on Fleet Street.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Johanna Barker &amp; Sweeney Todd, Nellie Lovett &amp; Tobias Ragg, Nellie Lovett/Sweeney Todd, Tobias Ragg &amp; Sweeney Todd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Respectable Business of the Sweet Tender Meat Vendor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b> <em>The Land Without Magic</em> </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>London, England</em> </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>March, 1836</em> </b>
</p><p> </p><p>Many English phrases and societal philosophies had atoms of truth in them. It was said throughout England that hungry work was hard work. Hard work equalled success during the hardest of hard times on the mean streets of the English capital which was a hole in the word like a great black pit which was filled with vermin who were filled with shit. The great black pit was called London. It was where a baker and her husband lived under one roof in their two-story apartment. Another week began like all the other weeks before this one. Another series of days was to be spent on satisfying the hunger of curiously carnivorous and crazed customers who craved the edible sensation that was taking London by storm. Meat pies were making a comeback from the kitchen to the tables in the dining room and on the patio. There were three kinds of people in this world. Those who deserved to eat or be eaten, those who proved to be what they ate, and those who deserved to die. The ruling class above would be condemned to serve those down below. Truer words had never been spoken by her husband. The baker rolled up her sleeves, dusting the flour from her bloodstained apron with her bare hands before she rolled out the dough for her latest batch of steak-and-kidney pies. Business was booming within the kitchen of Todd and Lovett’s Pie Shop on Fleet Street thanks to the devilish but handsome Demon Barber and his sinfully delicious ideas. The full name of the conocoter of these savory and sweet pies was Nellie Helena Lovett. Married to Sweeney Todd himself, she was a wickedly peculiar woman, having lived a reclusive life away from the public eye for three years after the demise of her previous husband. She didn’t talk about him. Not in public, at least. It was said that her husband had died in a baking accident. At least, that’s what the customers of her shop believed. Lovett knew better. The baker was also a butcher. Her husband was a barber surgeon. The house of the couple was known for close shaves, prime cuts, and freshly prepared meats which were almost to die for. Dishes served by Todd and Lovett to the English townsfolk included blood sausages, short ribs, meat pies, headcheese, rump roasts, and other darkly delicious delicacies which involved secret recipes that only their creators shared with each other. All of the Londoners flocked from their public houses, homes, and jobs to get a taste of Todd and Lovett’s meat pies. Most of the meats served in the pies consisted of pork, venison, poultry, beef, and occasionally slaughtered kittens, but the pies served on Sundays were uniquely delectable. The Sunday pies were made with blood, sweat, tears, and the flesh from the bodies of eviscerated priests. The messily slain priests used to be customers before they met their maker after their pathetic throats were slit by Todd in his parlow upstairs. Their hallowed corpses were dumped into the basement-turned-dungeon below the shop where their flesh was ground into minced meat by the Barber’s wife’s meat-grinding machine. Not a single soul who signed up to dine with Todd and Lovett knew the gruesome origins of their favorite meals. They did not know that they were eating other people. They simply thought that the meat they consumed originated from the inventories of various butcher’s shops and slaughterhouses across England. It was bloody delicious. Their compliments went to the chefs.</p><p> </p><p>“How is business going on?” the Demon Barber asked his wife as he sat down in the parlor of their shop, helping himself to a meat pie and a mug of pale ale.</p><p> </p><p>“Our bloody business is booming as usual,” Mrs. Lovett replied. “You cut throats. I bake pies. We make money together through the benefits of hard work along with blood, sweat, grease, and tears, but mostly blood. Bloodshed is our culinary currency as a cannibalistic couple of common partners.”</p><p> </p><p>“Right as always, Mrs. Lovett,” Todd agreed.</p><p> </p><p>As Sweeny took a bite from his pie, a thirteen-year-old boy walked into the parlor, dressed in rags and holding a bloodstained carving knife. The boy smiled meekly at his masters. His name was Tobias George Ragg. Toby for short. Todd and Lovett employed him as their apprentice after informally adopting him by whisking him off the streets in the poorest district of the city. He learned how to slit a customer’s throat, how to bake the flesh, entrails, and blood of his victims into meat pies, how to properly advertise meat pies to the newest victims and consumers, and how to dress like an honest gentleman instead of a disheveled ruffian who didn’t care about his improper sense of fashion or his social status as a member of the lower class. Todd acted as a father to the boy. He taught Toby in the arts of music, manners, murder, and mischief, the last lesson on the list being the sort of skill which was considered to be the Devil’s work in the eyes of the God-fearing Christians who made the soiled city of London their home. </p><p> </p><p>“What do you want?” Todd asked Toby.</p><p> </p><p>“I wanted to see if you wished to join me in the kitchen for supper,” Toby replied. </p><p> </p><p>“Supper? What’s on the table for this evening?” Todd replied.</p><p> </p><p>Toby smiled at his master.</p><p> </p><p>“Take a wild guess.”</p><p> </p><p>Knowing what the boy had in mind for their evening meal, Todd and Lovett followed Toby into the kitchen, where Johanna sat at the head of the table. The golden-haired girlfriend of Anthony Hope had prepared dinner for her family. Four individual meat pies, four bowls of blood sausages, and four glasses of cranberry wine were laid out on platters on the table for each member of the Demon Barber’s household. The Todd family sat down for dinner to enjoy their latest feast. </p>
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